Free Response - District Court of California - California

Case 3:07-cv-04904-PJH

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Filed 05/27/2008

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1 EDMUND G. BROWN JR. Attorney General of the State of California 2 DANE R. GILLETTE Chief Assistant Attorney General 3 GERALD A. ENGLER Senior Assistant Attorney General 4 PEGGY S. RUFFRA Supervising Deputy Attorney General 5 STAN HELFMAN, State Bar No. 49104 Supervising Deputy Attorney General 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 11000 6 San Francisco, CA 94102-7004 Telephone: (415) 703-5854 7 Fax: (415) 703-1234 Email: [email protected] 8 9 Attorneys for Respondent 10 11 12 13 14 HENRY LEE TOWNSEND, 15 Petitioner, 16 v. 17 DERRAL ADAMS, Warden, 18 Respondent. 19 20 21 22 23 24 Respondent provides this answer to the petition for writ of habeas corpus. I. CUSTODY Petitioner is lawfully in state custody pursuant to a valid judgment and commitment ANSWER C 07-4904 PJH (PR) IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

25 entered March 24, 2006 in Santa Clara County Superior Court case number CC 465996, upon his 26 conviction, following a jury trial, of receiving stolen property and using a stolen access card. The 27 court found true prior strike convictions for robbery and first degree burglary. The court sentenced 28 petitioner to 25 years to life under the Three Strikes law. Exh. A, p.1.
Answer Townsend v. Adams, Warden C 07-4904 PJH (PR)

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Case 3:07-cv-04904-PJH

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II. EXHAUSTION Petitioner exhausted his claims of instructional error and improper failure to limit or

4 sanitize impeachment evidence by presenting them to the California Supreme Court in a petition for 5 review. 6 7 8 III. DENIAL There is no merit to petitioner's claims that (1) the trial court's use of CALJIC No. 2.15,

9 which allows an inference of guilt from possession of stolen property and slight corroborating 10 evidence, violated due process; and (2) due process was violated when the trial court allowed him 11 to be impeached by his prior convictions without limiting the number that could be used, and failed 12 to sanitize the conviction for robbery with firearm use. 13 14 15 16 17 18 The petition is timely. V. RECORDS We submit herewith transcripts of the state trial and other pertinent records as described IV. TIMELINESS

19 in the accompanying Index to Exhibits. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Answer Townsend v. Adams, Warden C 07-4904 PJH (PR)

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CONCLUSION Respondent respectfully requests that the petition be denied, the order to show cause

3 discharged, and these proceeding dismissed. 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Answer Townsend v. Adams, Warden C 07-4904 PJH (PR)
40256999.wpd SF2007402695

Dated: May 27, 2008 Respectfully submitted, EDMUND G. BROWN JR. Attorney General of the State of California DANE R. GILLETTE Chief Assistant Attorney General GERALD A. ENGLER Senior Assistant Attorney General PEGGY S. RUFFRA Supervising Deputy Attorney General

/s/ Stan Helfman STAN HELFMAN Supervising Deputy Attorney General Attorneys for Respondent

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